“I have to decide to miss the clinic date or say yes to the job – if I could get a 6 month supply of my ARVs I wouldn’t have to worry”
Often staff are openly hostile to and dismissive of people from the LGBTQIA+ community, people who use drugs, and sex workers. For Moira*, a trans woman from the Free State, this poor treatment only adds to the frustration of long walks to the clinic and long waits once she gets there. Instead of finding staff who are sensitive to and knowledgeable of her health needs, she can be faced with judgement and disrespect. A longer supply of ARVs would mean fewer trips back to the clinic to face these kinds of interactions — making it easier for Moira, and others, to stay on treatment. It would also mean she does not have to choose between a piece job or collecting her ARVs. This is why TAC is marching on 1 December, to demand all stable people living with HIV who want it, get a 6 month supply. Moira tells us more about how a 6 month supply would help her.
Moira was 20 years old when she was diagnosed with HIV three years ago at Hope Clinic in Ventersburg in the Matjhabeng municipality district in the Free State.
Moira is currently having to go to the clinic on a monthly basis for a check-up and to collect her HIV medication. The monthly trips take up a lot of her time and she says a 6 month supply of medication would help her integrate treatment into her life more seamlessly rather than to have it be a dominant part of her monthly routine, as it is now.
“I walk to the clinic but it’s quite far and takes me about 30 minutes. I will get there maybe by half eight. I will only leave after 12 and then I walk back home, so it’s more than a half a day gone every time,” says Moira.
She adds: “Sometimes I get piece jobs, which I rely on a lot for income, but if I have a clinic date then I have to decide to miss the date or say yes to the job – but if I could get a 6 month supply of my ARVs then I wouldn’t have to worry about this.”
Moira says she hasn’t had any problems with the ARVs and is in good overall health for this reason she says the so-called check-ups she is receiving each month are of no actual help for patients.
“They will take my bloods every now and again, but in the three years that I have been on ARVs I have never been told anything about my results or my CD4 counts – nothing. So, I don’t know why I should be at the clinic every month for that,” she says.
Not being seen or being dismissed as a trans person makes clinic visits difficult interactions for Moira. Each visit she feels more despondent and less trusting that the health system can help, offer advice, or even just give some professional empathy.
Moira says nurses need to be more communicative and should focus on actual patient care. Her issue right now is less about her ARV treatment and more about getting support and assistance to access hormone therapy.
“When I try to talk to them, they just shut me down and say things like ‘we don’t do things like that here. They don’t want to help, and they don’t want to listen,” she says.
* Name changed to protect identity
#MoreARVPillsNow
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